Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Opower's Privacy Statement

OPOWER, Inc. ("Opower," "we," "us," or "our") has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our commitment to you, our user ("You" or "Your"), regarding Your privacy with respect to information that You submit to Opower by or through the Site or Services (defined below).

Scope of this Privacy Statement

We partner with utility companies and their designees (each, a "Utility") to promote energy efficiency to the Utility's customers. You may be a Utility customer, an employee of a Utility using the Site or Services in your capacity as an employee or a visitor to the site who is neither a customer nor employee of a Utility (in each case, individually, a "User," and collectively, as "Users").

This Privacy Statement applies to opower.com ("opower.com"), including all portions of opower.com where Utility customers can obtain services from Opower (the "Site"). Because we gather information from Users of the Site and related services offered through the Site provided by Opower (the "Services"), we have established this Privacy Statement as a means to communicate our information gathering, use and dissemination practices. In order to access and use the Site and/or Services, You must agree to our Terms of Use posted on the applicable Site. Any capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Statement are defined in the Terms of Use.

In addition to the Services we provide directly to You, we may also serve as a service provider for certain Utilities via a number of different Web sites and/or subdomains, through which those Utilities provide certain online and offline services to their end users ("Utility Services"), and Opower assists them in such provision, including the collection, use and dissemination of data and information from those customers. These companies have entered into separate written agreements with Opower governing those services provided by Opower. This Privacy Statement does not apply to those Utility Services. In each case, it is the Utility providing the Utility Services, not Opower. In those cases, the Utility, not Opower, is responsible for the collection, use and dissemination of any data or personal information provided by, or obtained from, end users of these Utilities and Utility Services, and it is the Utility's privacy policy, not this Privacy Statement, that will apply with respect to such data and information. As a result, this Privacy Statement does not apply to or restrict our use of information that we receive from your Utility or that we collect from any third party on behalf of Your Utility.

We consider the phrase "Personal Information" to mean any information or combination of information that is used or intended to be used to identify a discrete Individual, and any other non-public information that is associated with that information. "Anonymous Information" means information that is not associated with or linked to Your Personal Information, and is not used or intended to be used to personally identify an individual.

BY USING OUR SITE OR SERVICES OR SUBMITTING PERSONAL INFORMATION THROUGH OUR SITE OR SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT AND YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCORDING TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT. YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE PROCESSED BY US OR ON OUR BEHALF IN THE COUNTRY WHERE IT WAS COLLECTED AS WELL AS OTHER COUNTRIES (INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES) WHERE LAWS REGARDING PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE LESS STRINGENT THAN THE LAWS IN YOUR COUNTRY.

E.U. Safe Harbor and TRUSTe Certification

Opower complies with the U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Principles as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, transfer, and retention of personal data from the European Union. For more information on the EU Safe Harbor Framework, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.

As part of our participation in the EU Safe Harbor Framework, Opower has agreed to TRUSTe dispute resolution for disputes relating to our compliance with it. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at Opower, Inc., Attn: Legal Department, 1515 North Courthouse Rd., Eighth Floor, Arlington, VA 22201 or privacy@opower.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here. The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site.

Collected Information

Should You choose to provide us with Personal Information, we will treat such information in accordance with this Privacy Statement. The Personal Information we gather from You helps us learn more about, and provide You with, access to the Site or Services. We collect Personal Information that You submit to us voluntarily in the course of correspondence, registration and as otherwise identified below. We primarily collect this information to provide Services to You, including Services we provide in conjunction with Your Utility.

To register for certain Services offered on our Site, You may be required to provide certain Personal Information, including Your name, Utility account number and e-mail address. Through Your use of the Services, we may ask for additional information about Your residence, such as the home type, square footage, and number of residents. You are not required to provide this information, but we may not be able to provide certain Services without this information. We may associate this information with Your Personal Information, making it also Personal Information. Additionally, when You send us a communication, or fill out a request form such as a survey, we will collect all information contained therein. We do not request Users to submit social security numbers through the Site or Services, and You should not submit this information to us, to other Users or to any third party, through the Site or Services.

If You are interested in working at Opower, we enable You to apply for job openings on our Site. If You do this, you may submit information and your résumé directly to us through the Site, and You may also enable us to collect Personal Information about You from third party Web sites such as LinkedIn. When you use such Web sites or certain similar services to apply for a job, you will have the option to post information about your activities on this Web site to your profile page to share with others within your network. We will consider all Personal Information collected from this area of our Site as "Applicant Information". If You submit Applicant Information, we will only use that information to evaluate Your employment application and communicate with You.

Information From Other Sources

We may also receive Personal Information about You from: (i) Your Utility; (ii) third-parties that provide services for us in connection with the Site or Services, and (iii) third parties to whom You have voluntarily provided information. We may add this information to the information we have already collected from You via the Site or Services. This Privacy Statement does not restrict our use of that additional information.

Information Collected Via Technology

As You use the Site or Services, certain information may also be collected and stored on our or our service providers' server logs, including Your Internet protocol address, browser type, and operating system. We also use Cookies and navigational data like Uniform Resource Locators (URL) to gather information regarding the date and time of Your visit and the information for which You searched and viewed.

An "Internet protocol address" or "IP Address" is a number that is automatically assigned to Your computer when You use the Internet. In some cases Your IP Address stays the same from browser session to browser session; but if You use a consumer internet access provider, Your IP Address probably varies from session to session. We, or our service providers, may track Your IP Address when You access the Site or Services.

"Cookies" are pieces of information that some Web sites transfer to the computer that is browsing that Web site and are used for record-keeping purposes at many Web sites. Use of Cookies makes Web-surfing easier by performing certain functions such as saving passwords, personal preferences regarding the use of the particular Web site and making sure the user does not see the same ad repeatedly. Our site uses Cookies to enhance Your experience by allowing us to track Your click-stream data (the specific pages You visit on the Site), improving performance, and tailoring web content to Your interests. We do not store any Personal Information in the Cookies. Browsers are usually set to accept Cookies. However, if You would prefer not to receive cookies, You may alter the configuration of Your browser to refuse Cookies. If You choose to have Your browser refuse Cookies, it is possible that some areas of our Site will not function as effectively when You view them.

Disclosure - Relationship with Your Utility

There may be times when we also offer certain services in conjunction with Your Utility through co-branded Web sites (which are sometimes subdomains of the Site) ("Co-Branded Sites"). These Co-Branded Sites provide services to You by us and Your Utility. Both this Privacy Statement and the Utility's privacy policy govern information collected on Co-Branded Sites. Please be aware that when we collect information on the Co-Branded Sites, that information will be considered to be collected by both us and Your Utility. While this Privacy Statement governs our use and disclosure of that information, You should be aware that Your Utility may have different practices, and all such information may be used and disclosed by Your Utility in accordance with their own privacy policy. While we do not actively provide Your Personal Information to Your Utility, Your Utility will have access to any information collected on a Co-Branded Site through its customer service center. As we provide services on Your Utility's behalf, we may in certain situations use your Personal Information in a manner in which you provided consent to your Utility.

Disclosure - Usage of Third Party Cookies

We may allow third-party companies to collect certain Anonymous Information when You visit our Site. These companies typically use a Cookie or a third party web beacon to collect this information. Such Cookies will not be used to associate individual Users of a Site to any Personal Information. For example, one of our service providers tracks emails we send to You via the Services.

Use of Information

In general, we use Personal Information that You submit to us to:

Register You for and/or provide You access to the Site or Services and administer Your account;

Provide You Services, including Services related to Your Utility and analytics and information about energy efficiency and Your energy choices;

Enable Your Utility to provide You Services or otherwise improve the services being provided by Your Utility;

Tailor the features, performance and support of the Site or Services to You;

Market our products and services to You that we believe may be of interest to You;

Improve the quality of the Site and the Services; and

Communicate with You about the Site and the Services.

We may occasionally contact Users to further discuss their interest in Opower, the Services that we provide, and to send information regarding Opower. If You would not like to receive these emails, please see the section below titled "Opt-Out Policy", but please remember that even if You opt out, we may still send information such as administrative emails which pertain to the Site and Services. We may create Anonymous Information records from Personal Information by excluding information (such as Your name or email address) that makes the information personally identifiable to You.

Disclosure of Information

It is our general policy to restrict who can access Personal Information. Except as otherwise stated in this Privacy Statement, we do not trade, rent, or share the Personal Information that we collect with third-parties, unless You ask or authorize us to do so. You hereby authorize us to disclose Your Personal Information to Your Utility.

We may provide Your Personal Information to third-party service providers who work on behalf of or with us to provide some of the services and features of the Site or Services and to help us communicate with You. Examples of such services may include, but are not limited to, sending emails, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance and conducting surveys. These third-parties are required not to disclose Your Personal Information and not to use Your Personal Information except based on our instructions and in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

In the event of a change in ownership, or a merger with, acquisition by, or sale of assets to, another entity, we reserve the right to transfer all of Your Personal Information to that entity. Opower will notify You (via a posting on this Site or email (at Opower's discretion)) of such a transfer, and You may choose to modify certain of Your Personal Information at that time. This means if You are concerned about Your Personal Information being transferred to a new owner, You can notify us and requested that Your account not being transferred to the new owner.

We may share some or all of Your Personal Information with Your Utility or other third-parties to whom You ask or authorize us to send Your information. This Privacy Statement does not cover the use of Your personally identifiable information by such third-parties. Opower does not maintain responsibility for the manner in which third-parties use or further disclose Your personally identifiable information collected from You in accordance with this Privacy Statement, after we have disclosed such information to those third-parties. You agree and acknowledge that by using the Site and Services, You hereby consent to Opower sharing Your Personal Information under the circumstances described herein. If You do not want Opower to use or disclose Personal Information collected about You in the ways identified in this Privacy Statement, we will not be able to provide, and You may not use the Site or Services, and must notify Opower by emailing privacy@opower.com or following any of the other opt-out procedures discussed below in the "Opt-Out Policy" section. Please note that this opt-out will only affect your receipt of reports and emails, and will not affect our use of previously collected information.

Opower reserves the right to disclose Your Personal Information if required by law or if Opower reasonably believes that such disclosure is necessary to (a) resolve disputes, investigate problems, or enforce our Terms of Use; (b) comply with relevant laws or to respond to requests from law enforcement or other government officials relating to investigations or alleged illegal activity, we can (and You authorize us to) disclose Personal Information without subpoenas or warrants served on us; or (c) protect and defend the rights or property of Opower, You, or third-parties.

If You provide Applicant Information, we may disclose that information in all of the ways permitted above, except that we will not share it with Your Utility (if You have one). We reserve the right to disclose Anonymous Information publicly without restriction, including to third party vendors who may help us enhance or provide the Site or Services or to third parties.

Feedback

If You provide feedback to us, we may use and disclose such feedback for any purpose, provided we do not associate such feedback with Your Personal Information. We will collect any information contained in such feedback and will treat the Personal Information in it in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

Third Party Sites

The Site may contain links to other Web sites, including those of Utilities. Opower is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these other websites. This Privacy Statement applies solely to information collected by us through the Site or Services and does not apply to these third party websites. Users will need to check the privacy policies of these others websites to understand their policies. Users who access a linked site may be disclosing their Personal Information.

Regarding Children

The Site is not directed to children and children are not eligible to use our Services. We do not collect or maintain Personal Information from people we actually know are under 13 years old, and no part of the Site or Services is designed to attract people under 13 years old. If we later obtain actual knowledge that a User is under 13 years old, we will take steps to remove that User's Personal Information from our databases.

Security

We have put in place reasonable security measures designed to safeguard against the loss, misuse and alteration of Your Personal Information under our control. This includes utilizing Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts the personal information you input.

Despite such efforts, however, please note that no company, including Opower, can fully eliminate risks or guarantee the security of Your Personal Information; unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of information about You at any time, and we bear no liability for uses or disclosures of personal data or non-personal data arising in connection with the theft thereof. If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can contact us at privacy@opower.com.

Opower conducts periodic self-assessments to verify that the attestations and assertions it makes about its privacy practices are true and that such privacy practices have been implemented as presented. Opower will take steps to remedy any problems arising out of failure to comply with the Safe Harbor principles.

Opt-Out Policy

Opower offers Users of its Site and Services a means to opt-out of receiving certain service related communications from us. Your Utility may initially register You for certain service related communications or otherwise opt You in to receiving these types of communications. If, at any time after registering for information or ordering Services, You change Your mind about being contacted by us, You can opt-out of receiving such information by logging onto the Site, accessing Your account and selecting the "Opt-Out" option, or by contacting your Utility company directly. In addition, Users can choose to opt out of newsletters, reports and promotional emails via the opt-out link included in each email. However, even if You opt-out of receiving such communications, we retain the right to send You service-related communications in our sole discretion.

Correcting & Updating Your Information

You may correct and update the Personal Information we have collected directly from You by logging onto the Site and accessing Your account or by sending us an email at privacy@opower.com. However, we do not permit You to edit Personal Information we have received directly from Your Utility, including your name, address and account number. If You wish to change this information, please contact Your Utility directly, and we will update it in our records the next time we receive information about You from Your Utility (generally weekly). We do not permit You to view or access Applicant Information on the Site or Services.

As permitted under the Safe Harbor provisions, we may not make all requested changes where such changes are unreasonably burdensome or expensive. We will however, promptly correct any inaccuracies in any Personal Information that we have in our possession once notified of the requested change. We endeavor to process these requested changes as soon as is possible, but it may take up to thirty (30) days to make requested changes.

Certain information is necessary in order for us to provide the Site or Services; therefore, if You delete such necessary information You will not be able to use the Site or Services. If You wish discontinue the Services, You may contact us at privacy@opower.com. After such request, we may continue to use Anonymous Information previously derived from your Personal Information. We may also continue to receive Personal Information about You from Your Utility.

If our relationship with Your Utility ends, we are contractually obligated to the Utility to delete all Personal Information related to such Utility, provided, however, that we may continue to maintain and use Your Personal Information in a manner where the information is no longer personally identifiable.

Please note that even after the deletion of Your Personal Information by us, we may be required (by law or otherwise, such as to prevent fraud, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, or enforce our Services Agreement) to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time) in which case we will comply with Your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements). When we delete Personal Information, it will be deleted from the active database, but may remain in our archives.

Notification of Changes

We may update this privacy statement to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on this Site prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Additional Information

Questions regarding this Privacy Statement or the practices of the Site or Services should be directed to Opower by e-mailing such questions to privacy@opower.com.